


Wings burnt with the pride

by SuklaaSiili



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Cafe AU, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, M/M, Non-Despair AU, Romance, ishimondo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-02-12 06:09:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2098539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuklaaSiili/pseuds/SuklaaSiili
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mondo stuffed his hands to his pockets and turned around the corner, only to hope he had never done it in the first place. Marching into the café and thus Mondo’s workplace was Ishimaru Kiyotaka of all people. Just as he thought nothing could be worse. His summer was ruined.</p><p> <br/>More characters from Dangan Ronpa will appear as the story proceeds. Includes cursing. May also contain violence at the later chapters and spoilers of the Dangan Ronpa game. Rated teen for the later chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Worst possible scenario

**Author's Note:**

> This is something that has been forming in my head for a while and i wanted to start writing it so... Here it is, the first chapter of my Ishimondo fanfic. \\( ^ ^ )/ I'm planning to write couple of chapters after this one, I'm just not really sure how long this will be, hard to say at this point. I wonder if I was able to write in character..? I would like to know about that too. I fully appreciate any comments, feel free tell me what you like because that helps me improve my faults. Also don't hesitate to notify me if you happen to find disturbing typos, even though i did try to fix all of them ^^'. I'm trying to keep my updating pace at least somewhat regular, but I'm not going to promise anything, just in case. Without any further intros, please enjoy reading my story~!

Mondo furrowed his brows and kicked empty can from his way. The summer holiday had just started, but his long awaited vocation should wait little longer. Mondo had managed to get work for summer, which was both good and bad thing. Having to notice he was little short on money wasn’t very pleasant, and left Mondo no choice but to attend for a job. So getting money was only positive thing he could see about getting a job. And the bad sides of it? There were countless. But maybe worst of them was that his holiday was cut to half, which meant less time for his gang and his motorbike. Mondo had really doubted that he would be able to get job with the gangster reputation he had, but seemingly the café’s old lady hadn’t been reading too much news about crazy diamonds.  
Mondo stuffed his hands to his pockets and turned around the corner, only to hope he had never done it in the first place. Marching into the café and thus Mondo’s workplace was Ishimaru Kiyotaka of all people. Just as he thought nothing could be worse. His summer was ruined.  
If possible even more unwillingly than seconds earlier, Mondo made his way to the café. He stopped in front of the outdoor and pretended to be reading posters attached to the wall. From the corner of his eye, Mondo watched how the Hall monitor talked to the café lady with that stupid overexcited attitude.  
When Mondo felt he had started to gather suspicious looks from people passing by, he gave up and walked in. For a moment hall monitor had surprised look on his face, but it was soon gone as he politely greeted Mondo along with the café lady. Gang leader looked away and murmured an answer.  
“So, should I show you around?” Café lady clasped her hands smiling kindly.  
She motioned the two to follow her, and started short tour around building. Mondo looked lazily around while prefect made all sorts of questions and listened politely everything that café lady said. Mondo pressed his mouth to straight line. He didn’t like this at all.  
“You can call me Mrs. Kano. And in case you need help, just ask. I’ll be in the kitchen. Now then, you can go to change your uniforms. Mrs. Kano nodded to the direction of the locker room. You have plenty of time to find clothes of right size before the lunch time starts.”  
“Right, thank you Ma’am!” Ishimaru gave Mrs. Kano polite bow and started to stride to the direction we came from.  
“Thanks, I think…” Mondo mumbled scratching the back of his head before heading to the locker room.  
Gang leader had managed to find uniform big enough for him, and changed into it. Outfit consisted of white shirt, tie, simple grey vest and black straight pants.  
‘Just great…’ Mondo thought grumpily as he opened the door out of the locker room. He almost bumped into hall monitor, who had stopped to adjust his tie.  
“Can’t ya stop trying to be so perfect..?!” Mondo groaned, annoyed and walked past him. Biker himself had left three top buttons from his shirt unbuttoned, tie hanging loosely around his neck. Mondo rolled his sleeves up as he made his way behind the counter.  
He was eying the ceiling when Ishimaru arrived, handing Mondo a slip of paper. Until this time all the slips he got from hall monitor meant detention, so Mondo lifted his eyebrow, but took the paper. Obviously, on the paper wasn’t detention date and time, but his timetable for the next month. Mondo nodded and stuffed the slip to his pocket.  
‘Damn it he pisses me off..!’ Mondo gritted his teeth, hearing prefect who had been chitchatting in the kitchen with Mrs. Kano for a while. The talking itself didn’t really bother Mondo, but that Ishimaru kept making overexcited comments no matter how boring the conversation. ‘Just got to be such a goody-goody.’  
Ishimaru returned behind the counter just as the first customer for the day walked in. Hall monitor gave polite greeting, and customer returned the greeting, despite giving few nervous glances to Mondo’s direction before going to the table.  
Ishimaru went to take customer’s order, writing it down to the notebook. Mondo watched him serve the customer, leaning his jaw onto his hand, elbow resting on the counter. Hall monitor delivered customer’s order to the kitchen, and returned with casual smile on his face.  
“What’s with the fucking smirk..?” Mondo glanced sideways at Ishimaru, still leaning onto desk in front of him.  
“I’m not smirking. And don’t swear, if you please. ” Ishimaru had sharp tone in his voice as he corrected Mondo’s statement.  
“Whatever…” Mondo sighed, closing his eyes.  
How he wished to be anywhere else right now. It was just his luck to get stuck with the idiot hall monitor for almost half of the summer.  
Couple of minutes later, more customers arrived with sound from the bell hanging above the door. Mondo could hear Ishimaru going to take their order, he himself half sleeping behind the counter.  
“Quit slaking off, Oowada! We have customers waiting!” Mondo opened his eyes and gave lazy look at the hall monitor, who was staring back at him angrily.  
“Geez, calm your shit…” Mondo straightened his back, and stretched before looking around.  
Dampened snickering soon caught his attention. Mondo didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. Damn. He exhaled deeply and turned to face Leon Kuwata, who was sitting in the corner table.  
“What do ya want you shithead..? He growled with notebook in his hand.  
“Whoa I don’t think that’s the way you speak to regular..!” Leon smirked, clearly finding the situation funny.  
“So..? You going to order or what?” Mondo stared blankly at the redhead.  
“Yea sure I will. I just didn’t think I’d ever see you two as co-workers. “Leon snickered again. “ I’ll take the ordinary.”  
Mondo lifted his brow with slightly annoyed expression.  
“S-sandwich and lemonade, I mean..!” Leon added hurriedly, not wanting to anger the biker.  
“Got it.” Mondo said walking back to the counter, first dropping at the kitchen to give Leon’s order.  
After Mondo was gone, Leon sighed in relief and sank into his chair. “Geez, you sure don’t wanna to make that dude angry…”  
After a while, Mondo returned with Leon’s order with him. Gang leader laid the tray on the table in front of Leon and sat to the chair opposite him. Mondo looked over his shoulder: Ishimaru was busy taking some old lady’s payment, chatting politely as usual. Mondo leaned his head heavily onto his hands, sighing deeply.  
“I’m stuck with that guy for a whole month..! My summer is ruined..!” Mondo hissed from between his teeth.  
Leon shrugged, making as innocent face as he could manage, while eating his lunch in hurry. “Well, I wouldn’t start a fight I was you. Anyways, gotta go man! My date is waiting!” Leon pulled the money from his pocket, stuffing it into Mondo’s hand with a wink. “It’s not nice to make idol wait..!” and Leon was out of the door.  
“Oowada! I thought you were supposed to be taking orders from the customers..!” Ishimaru snapped at the gang leader who had just gotten up.  
“Shut up and quit nagging you damn hall monitor!” Mondo groaned but went to get payment from the customer, who was growing impatient at the counter. While managing the cash register, Mondo heard Ishimaru apologizing to the customer about Mondo’s behaviour, which irritated him even more.  
Biker did his best not to start fight with prefect for the end of the day and after painfully long six hours, he rushed to the locker room, practically running through the halls. Somewhere behind him Mondo could hear Ishimaru complain about running in the halls, but that only made him haste more.  
After quickly saying ‘Thanks for the day’ to Mrs. Kano from the doorway, Mondo left towards the nearby parking lot. There was waiting for him his loyal motorbike. Mondo couldn’t help but smile a little at the thought of getting onto it.  
His bad mood was already beginning to fade, after getting to the fresh air. Now that gang leader got onto his bike, the annoyance was nothing but a memory. Mondo let his bike roar loudly couple of times, before speeding to the road.  
Mondo knew nothing better than riding his motorcycle. The feeling of adrenalin rushing into his veins as the speed meter reached the top readings. There was no match to it.  
Mondo stopped his bike in front of the night club crazy diamond’s members had taken liking to. Mondo didn’t drink often, he just had good time with his gang while looking after those idiots who happened to drink too much. When gang leader stepped inside, he was greeted by his members from the different sides of the club. Mondo was well liked among the Crazy diamond’s members, but not especially close to anyone. He took a seat at the bar counter, and ordered a drink.  
One of his group members sitting on the bar stool next to Mondo lifted an eyebrow at his leader. “So what’s up? You don’t drink too often, do ya?”  
Mondo took long sip from his glass, and put it back down with knock.  
“Nothing special. Just had a pretty fucking annoying day.” Mondo said before finishing his drink. He wasn’t going to drink anymore so that he would be able to drive home.  
His gang member laughed and ordered himself another drink. “Whatever you say.”  
Mondo ended up having to call a taxi for the few of his mates who drank a bit too much. After paying for the driver and little extra for taking them till the home door, Mondo walked back to his bike. Climbing onto the seat, Gang leader stuffed is hands into his pockets, staring blankly to in front of him.  
Mondo sat there for a while, clearing his thoughts. He had no idea how long he exactly just sat there, but by the time his fingers started to feel cold, he turned the engine on.  
‘Oh crap. The work.’ Biker looked at the clock of his phone, not until now remembering he actually had timetable now. ‘…Fuck.’ He stared at the digits on his phone screen. Twenty past four in the morning. Mondo rubbed his eyes with his palms. He drove back home speed closer to the legal than in ages.  
The trip took long enough, and Mondo had three hours left to arrive to the café by the time he was home. Mondo took quick shower, and tried to get something down his throat before allowing himself to take a nap before leaving. If it had been school then never mind, but it was kind of necessary to have money.

Mondo jumped at the sound off his phone’s alarm. He groaned, but sat up to shut the alarm. Mondo rubbed his fingers against his temples, and tried to ease the headache. After finding out it was no help, gang leader stoop up and stretched his stiff limbs before heading to the outdoor.  
On his way to work, Mondo stopped to buy a cup of coffee. He must have looked even scarier than usually, because the shopkeeper had a frightened look on his face the second Mondo walked in.  
Biker drank the coffee before it had even cooled down properly and sat back onto the saddle of his bike, after throwing cartoon cup into the trashcan. He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, headache still bounding in the back of his head. Then he concentrated back to the moment, speeding to the road.  
Mondo stopped his bike effortlessly, leaving it to the border of the parking lot. When he stuffed the key of his bike to his pockets, Mondo saw two kids looking at his Motorbike in awe.  
“Cool, huh? You have a good taste.” Mondo smirked at the boys, proudly patting the seat of his bike. “Sorry bros but you gotta to wait until you get bit older. Look after my babe will ya?” Gang leader gave small laugh when kids nodded wildly and he left them admiring his bike.  
Mondo arrived at the front door of the café five minutes before his work started. As expected, Ishimaru had arrived a lot earlier, and was now cleaning tables wearing café’s uniform. Prefect gave him polite ‘Good morning!’ Mondo mumbling an answer. Hall monitor’s good mood was even more annoying than usually, now that Mondo was tired as hell.  
Lunchtime was already over and Mondo was sitting at the corner table, rubbing his face with his palms. He was dozing off, leaning his face to his hands, when suddenly someone sat to the other side of the table. Mondo parted his fingers, and saw Ishimaru sitting opposite him. He growled, but was too tired to bother to walk off.  
“Can I guess? You drank the whole night and came to work in terrible hangover?” Ishimaru sat straight on his chair, looking Biker in the eye.  
“No…” Mondo returned the stare, but closed the gaps between his fingers after a while. “Besides, whaddya care?”  
Ishimaru sat there little longer, looking at the biker. Then hall monitor shrugged and stood up, adjusting his uniform.  
“I simply think that is in unacceptable to sleep during the working hours.” With that Ishimaru went back to cleaning the tables.  
At some point Mondo pulled himself together, and put some effort into washing dishes in the kitchen.  
Later that day, Ishimaru left twenty minutes earlier from work. That was, after apologizing countless times to Mrs. Kano, even though she assured it was perfectly fine. Prefect ended up being practically pushed out of the door by Ms. Kano, who just smiled and shook her head at Ishimaru. She turned to look at Mondo, who had stopped washing dishes to look at the two.  
“You can go to change already. Would you like to have cup of tea? Or maybe you would like coffee better?” Mrs. Kano smiled at Mondo, motioning him to go the locker room already. “I can put those away” She nodded towards the dishes in the sink.  
“…I guess I’d use a cup of coffee…” Biker said ash he was hushed out of the kitchen.  
By the time Mondo returned, Mrs. Kano was already sitting at one of the tables with two cups of coffee. Mondo sat onto the chair opposite her, and looked around little awkwardly.  
“Do you want milk?” Mrs. Kano looked up at the biker, brows lifted.  
Mondo shook his head, pouring the black liquid down his throat. He sighed and sank into his chair.  
“You youngsters have it hard these days.” Mrs. Kano said, mixing some milk into her coffee. Mondo lifted his eyebrow questioningly.  
Mrs. Kano chuckled. “I do know the face of town’s most terrifying gang’s leader.”  
Mondo looked surprised. “You knew and still hired me?” Mrs. Kano simply nodded, before taking a sip from her coffee.  
“I doubted that you would look for work if you didn’t really need that money.”  
Mrs. Kano smiled knowingly at Mondo, who tried to cover his embarrassment looking out of window, while drinking the rest of his coffee. Mrs. Kano said Mondo was free to leave, and walked into kitchen to wash their coffee mugs. Gang leader said thanks from the outdoor and stuffing his hands into his pockets, he left towards the parking lot.

Mondo raised his eyebrows in amusement, when he saw that the two little kids from earlier had gotten more company. Mondo walked next to his bike and leaned over the seat to look at the kids who sat on the ground next to his motorbike.  
“So, what’s up?” Mondo’s lips curled into smile when his voice made kids jump.  
“Hey, it’s the cool cornhead..!” Kids shouted excitedly when they turned around.  
“…Cool –what..?” Mondo’s expression turned bitter. Kids seemed to realize it hadn’t been very pleasant nickname, and started to fidget looking at each other. Mondo laughed it off, making confused children look at him. “It’s ‘kay. You can call me bro.”  
“But did ya really stay here the whole day..?” Mondo looked at the five little kids, with surprised expression.  
“We-well not all the time… We went home to eat…” Little boy looked somewhat guilty as he said that.  
“But we came back right away, and took our friends with us..!” Another boy continued.  
“Hey you didn’t really have to…” Mondo stood up and scratched the back of his head.  
“It’s fine! We had fun!” Little girl chimed at Mondo, making him roll his eyes.  
“Well” Mondo put his bike’s keys to the keyhole and started the engine. “In that, case thanks a lot buddies..!” Gang leader climbed onto the motorbike, and flashed grin at the children, who backed further to give him space. Mondo shook his head at them when he drove off with a roars of the engine. 

It was still just barely evening when Mondo got home, but Mondo had planned to go to sleep earlier today anyway. He turned on the television and went to fridge to get a drink. Clicking the can open, Mondo watched the local news while taking sips from his lemonade. In twenty minutes Mondo’s lemonade can was empty and he couldn’t find anything interesting to watch anymore. Biker stoop up and stretched, before heading to take a shower.  
After he got into bed, Mondo checked he that had the alarm set for the tomorrow. Finally feeling somewhat relaxed after the tiring day, It didn’t take him long to fall fast asleep. 

Mondo made sure to leave earlier, because he wanted to drive the longer road to the café. Riding his bike was always the easiest way to clear his thoughts. When Mondo slowed down before the parking lot, he noticed the kids from yesterday running around with each other nearby. Gang leader stopped his motorbike to the corner, and saw the kids running to his direction.  
“Bro! We came again today!” Shouted first boy.  
“Yeah, we want to be like you when we grow up!” Another kid continued.  
Mondo’s eyes widened and he looked at the kids wearing big innocent smiles. Then he shook his head.  
“Nah, you should just study hard and get proper job, you know?” Biker squatted so that he was on their eye level. “Then you can buy awesome bikes like mine.”  
Mondo turned to the direction of the café and waved his hand lazily. “Be good kids, will ya?”  
Mondo was surprised to see that he was first to arrive. Mondo felt irritation forming inside him, after twenty minutes had passed without hall monitor nowhere to be seen.  
‘Why in the hell I’ve got to be here if that jerk doesn’t..!’  
He managed to keep his annoyance to himself for a while, but after half an hour, biker walked to the door of the kitchen.  
“Why that idiot isn’t at work…?!” Mondo had to hold his anger back to not to shout straight at Mrs. Kano’s face. Old lady raised her brows at him.  
“Ishimaru called me and apologized saying he had gotten sick. Didn’t you know?”  
Mondo put big effort into swallowing all the curses. “Why would’ve I known that..?”  
“Oh? I thought that you were in the same school?” Mrs. Kano put hand to her cheek in surprise.  
“…Yea, maybe but doesn’t make us friends. Nothing even near.” Mondo stuffed his hands into his pockets angrily.  
“Oh dear? Now that I think about it, you two don’t talk very much, do you?” Mrs. Kano seemed to think back the time the two had been working at the café.  
Mondo shook his head and groaned. ‘How dare that little punk get sick and leave all the work to me…’  
“Maybe you should pay him a visit to see if he has medicine?” Mrs. Kano smiled slightly amusedly at the face Mondo made at her suggestion. “It would take him longer to get better if he doesn’t happen to have medicine.” Her next thought she said purposely aloud. “Oh my, there will be a lot for one person to handle.”  
“…”Mondo looked away. “’ guess I have no choice then…” Biker bit his teeth together and walked out of the kitchen, leaving Mrs. Kano chuckling.  
As Mrs. Kano had predicted, lunchtime was hard to deal with alone (especially since Ishimaru usually made most of the work). Mondo was more than close to lose his temper with few difficult customers, but he managed to survive to the end of the lunch time.  
‘Man, got to give some credit to that hall monitor for handling those shitheads so easily…’ Biker exhaled in relief, after the day’s last customer paid and left. Mondo was cleaning the tables, when the bell above the door signalled someone came in.  
“Oh, Mondo is that you?”  
Biker turned around with surprised expression. “Chiriro? What are you doing here?”  
“I happened to pass by and wanted to have something sweet... I didn’t know you worked here, though.” Chihiro looked curiously at Mondo.  
Mondo scratched the back of his head little embarrassed.  
“Well I didn’t tell anyone. Kinda doesn’t fit my imago.” Mondo looked down his clothes and then back to Chihiro who smiled understandingly.  
“Could you recommend something to me? I would like to have some cake.” Chihiro smiled sweetly at his friend, while Mondo bit his lower lip in thought.  
“Le’mme see…” Biker took menu list from the nearest table. “How ’bout this?” He pointed at classic strawberry cake slice in the list.  
“Looks sweet! I will take that, then..!” Chihiro smiled happily, and Mondo went to get the cake from the kitchen. When gang leader returned, his friend was already sitting at the one of tables. Mondo put the plate in front of Chihiro and sat down.  
“It really surprised me to find you here. Are you the only worker besides the owner?” Chihiro asked in between eating the cake.  
“’ Wish I was. That bastard prefect works here too.” Mondo rested his head to his hand and sighed. “But I can appreciate him just a little cuz it would be one hell of work here alone.”  
“Ishimaru? Now that you mention it, where is he?” Chihiro lifted her brows curiously, looking around.  
“Heard he’s sick.” Mondo said blankly.  
“That’s terrible..! Does he have somebody looking after him?” Chihiro sounded worried but biker just shrugged.  
“No idea. Mrs. Kano told me to take him medicine anyways.”  
Chihiro and Mondo talked a little longer, before shorter boy waved good byes to his friend. After Chihiro left, Mondo returned to cleaning the tables. Before long, his working time ended.  
“I’m leaving for today. See ya.” Mondo said walking out of the locker room.  
“Don’t forget to visit Ishimaru!” Mrs. Kano shouted after him before gang leader walked out of the door.  
‘Sure I won’t after you remind me all the fucking time…’ Mondo swallowed the last sentence and said just ‘Yeah’ before closing the door behind him.  
When Mondo arrived to his bike, he greeted shortly the kids running towards him, before telling them he had some business to deal with.  
Biker was somewhat sure he remembered where prefect lived, and decided to head there after getting the medicine. The time passed way too fast while driving, and before he noticed, Mondo was in front of Ishimaru’s door. Mondo didn’t want to admit it to himself, but he felt kind of nervous standing behind hall monitor’s door.  
Mondo pressed the doorbell, and a while later he heard someone walking down the stairs. Gang leader put his hands into his pockets, and looked to the side as he waited for door to open. Suddenly he heard loud knock from the inside, followed by clattering and thud before noises faded. Mondo’s eyes widened and he stared at the door, hearing quiet, pained groan. Quickly snapping out of it, Mondo jerked the door open and rushed in to see what had happened.


	2. Scent of danger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again! I'm sorry to be little late. my original meaning was to get chaper 2 published the last weekend, but I just couldn't find the inspiration to finish it. :,/ I hope you like the second chapter, I put a lot of effort into it :). Thank you for notifying about the typos in previous chapter, also feel free to do that again if you find any. I'm also very happy about the kudos you gave to my fic, thank you so much! Hopefully you like the 2nd chapter of 'Wings burnt with the fire'. Please enjoy and tell me what you think about it!

Ishimaru groaned quietly, curling up into ball. Before giving too much thought to it, Mondo was kneeling next to the hall monitor. Biker felt little troubled, as prefect squeezed his eyes shut in pain.

“Uh…Hey, you all right..?” Mondo looked awkwardly to his side.

Ishimaru parted his eyelids slowly. Seeing Mondo kneeling beside himself, his feverish eyes widened slightly.

“O-Oowada? What are you doi-“Prefect couldn’t finish his sentence, when he flinched in pain after trying to get up.

“Whoa..! That can wait. Did ya fall?” Mondo looked up the stairs, recalling the sound of footsteps from before. Then he looked back at Ishimaru, trying to figure how major his injury was.

“I… My vision blurred and I… stumbled in the stairs…” Ishimaru muttered looking away.

Mondo scratched his neck. “Can ya tell how bad it is?”

“…I think I may have sprained my ankle…” Dark haired boy sat up, careful not to move his hurting ankle. Mondo moved prefect’s blanket out of the way to get a better look at his ankle. When he touched the already swelling ankle slightly, prefect winced and pressed his eyes shut.

 “Don’t worry. ‘ts not that bad. Where’s your freezer?” Biker lifted his brows questioningly.

Ishimaru nodded at the door few steps away from him, directing the way to the kitchen for Mondo, who walked into the kitchen. Gang leader returned in in few minutes, tossing a pack of ice cubes to him: “Press this against the sprain.”

“Sorry, ya not going to like this but neither do I…” Without a further warnings, Mondo picked Ishimaru onto his arms. Ignoring the horrified look on prefect’s face, biker started to climb up the stairs.

“P-p-put me down on this instant..!!!” hall monitor panicked, trying to get himself free.

“Shut up…! You’d just fall over again.” Mondo had no trouble holding Ishimaru still: “Or maybe I /should/ drop you..?”

Mondo stopped walking and looked down at the Ishimaru’s face that had paled at Mondo’s suggestion. Prefect stopped struggling, and gang leader carried him all the way into his room.

Putting the bright red faced hall monitor down onto his bed, biker ordered him to get into bed and walked the stairs back down. He had forgotten the medicine he had brought to the downstairs earlier, but before going back upstairs with it, he got an extra pillow from the couch.

Mondo arrived back to the hall monitor’s room, just to find him wrapped up into his blanket, sitting on his bed.

“…Ya didn’t hear me when I told you to lay down?” Mondo furrowed his brows annoyed and threw the pillow at the bed, pushing the medicine bottle into Ishimaru’s hands. Mondo sat onto the floor leaning his back against the bed and crossed his arms.

“You’d better drink that you idiot. Who said you could get sick and leave all the fucking work to me…?!” Mondo turned his head to the side and threw annoyed look at Ishimaru from his eye corner.

 “You…Came to bring me medicine..?” Ishimaru looked back at him, dumbfounded.

“Y-yea, somethin’ wrong with that..?! If you aint going to drink it I’ll take it back..!” Mondo turned his head back in flustered motion. He heard fabric rustle behind him, when Ishimaru moved at bed. They both kept quiet for a good while, before Mondo turned slightly to lean his elbow onto the border of the bed, resting his head against his palm. Biker kept his face directed forward, but glanced sideways at prefect. Gang leader’s eyes widened slightly the sight of prefect hugging his knees, keeping the medicine bottle tightly in his grip.

“…Nobody has ever done that for me.” Ishimaru said quietly, looking at the glass bottle in his hands.

Mondo didn’t say anything, he just kept his eyes at the wall in front of him, waiting for him to continue.

“…Nobody has ever cared if I was sick or not, not after I moved here…” Fabric rustled again, when Ishimaru slid down onto the bed with thud, burying himself under his blanket. Mondo sat quietly onto the floor, before standing up:

“…Need to get something from downstairs…”

Mondo walked down to the first floor, shoving hands into his pockets. Biker walked into the hall way, but stopped before bathroom’s door. He looked at the pictures in neat line on the wall. Mondo couldn’t help small laugh escaping from his mouth.

He could clearly recognize Ishimaru from a picture that was probably from preschool. When he took a closer look at the picture, he noticed that other kids in the picture had made little distance to him, as if not wanting to stand next to Ishimaru. The little Ishimaru in the picture gripping the hem of his shirt, smiled so forcedly it made him feel little down.

‘Lonely kid, huh..?’ Gang leader looked at the picture little longer, before going into kitchen. He sat down onto one of kitchen’s chairs, noticing permanent marker on the table. Mondo took it between his fingers and rolled it between them, looking at the marker thoughtfully. Then he leaned back in his chair and removed cork from the marker.

Mondo drew a little curve onto the surface of the glass. Stepping back, he smiled at the picture, little Ishimaru returning him a smile. The second Mondo realized he had ruined hall monitor’s property, it was little late to fix it.

‘Oh crap..! I can’t get it off!’ Gang leader rubbed the glass with his sleeve, but it didn’t help. “Fuck..! Why the hell I had to do that…” Mondo hit himself mentally for drawing into the photo as he put the marker back onto kitchen’s table.

Biker climbed stairs into the upper floor, and went to see how Ishimaru was feeling. To his surprise, Mondo saw that prefect had taken his medicine and was fast asleep. He stood in the middle of the room, when he noticed Ishimaru’s phone on the nightstand. Mondo picked it up, and started to write a message.

____________________________________

“Hey idiot. You’d better be at work next week.

…Sorry, shout at me if ya want, I kinda happened to ruin your photo…”

[+358 **********]

“Just in case ya do something stupid again.”

____________________________________

 Mondo thought about leaving the message as it was, but he ended up putting his phone number to the end of the message.

Biker left his message open to prefect’s cell, putting it back to the nightstand.

By the time gang leader was sitting on the seat of his bike, the message he had left started to feel kind of embarrassing. Maybe it would have been better not to leave it at all… Mondo groaned and knocked his head against his bike. If he went back in, prefect would probably wake up.

‘The heck. I don’t think he’ll even read it.’ Assuring himself that it was the case, Mondo drove off from hall monitor’s driveway.

The wind fluttered his clothes, as Mondo enjoyed the speed and the freedom driving made him feel. Traffic lights had never slowed him, and neither did they now. Mondo zigzagged between cars that had stopped in front of the red light, making his way past them.

Mondo took his favourite route, and stopped his bike arriving at the empty harbour. Biker didn’t stand up from the seat, but instead listened the waves hitting rocks, staying on his bike. In the silence Mondo heard his phone vibrate in his pocket. Gang leader picked his, phone:

<One unread message ✉>

Mondo pressed [read] expecting it was some drunk Crazy diamond’s member texting him. The message turned out to be far from something gang member would send him.

____________________________________

“Thank you for paying me a visit, even though I was little surprised that you came. Please try not to lose your temper with the customers, it would be bad for café’s reputation…”

Mondo’s expression turned sour. Typical hall monitor. Pressing down button to read the rest made his eyes widen slightly.

“And about the picture… Don’t worry about it, I prefer it the way it is now.”

____________________________________

 

Of course hall monitor had woken up at the sound of Mondo’s bike when he had left. Biker looked at the screen for a while, before the corners of his mouth curled slightly upwards. “Idiot.”

 

The next day at the café was as tiring as the one before. Nothing out of ordinary happened, except that Sakura and Asahina came to eat at the café. Biker had no idea how somebody could have the appetite like Asahina had, when it came to doughnuts. Sakura just patiently sat drinking protein drink, listening how Asahina talked excitedly about this and that in between of eating her doughnuts.

Mondo couldn’t help but hope that prefect would get better soon, otherwise, in few days the gang leader would get too tired to even move a finger.

“Hey, Asahina aren’t ya full already…?” Mondo leaned onto the counter, looking how swimmer munched a doughnut after another. Lunch time had ended half an hour ago and all the customers had left.

“Oh? But don’t you think it would be cruel not to eat the rest after I ate the others?” Asahina looked concernedly at her friend, before looking at the remaining doughnuts in the showcase next to counter.

“Asahina.” Sakura’s deep voice got the other girl’s attention.

“You should save some for the other customers as well. We could continue our jogging.” Sakura had finished her protein drink and stood up.

Asahina’s pout faded when Sakura mentioned continuing their jogging. “That’s right…! Let’s go!”

Asahina paid for her (extremely large and sweet) lunch, before running to her friend who waited at the door. Mondo gave Sakura thankful look, who blinked her eyes in response. The two left and biker got to clean the table. The two being the last customers of the day, Mrs. Kano gave Mondo permission to go home already.

 

Gang leader sank into the couch, and turned on the television. Mondo browsed channels, but found nothing interesting and soon turned the television off. Biker stared at the ceiling for some time, but then he stood up and decided to go to see his gang.

Mondo opened the door to Crazy diamonds’ regular night club. It never seemed to be short on customers, since at least few people always sat at the corner. Now was start of the weekend and the club was fully crowded. Mondo walked to the bar counter, returning greeting so his loud gang members.

Biker had good time with his gang, laughing at their stupid jokes. Mondo didn’t drink today and surprisingly none of crazy diamond’s members got too drunk to get home by themselves. When Mondo was about to stand up from his bar stool to leave all most empty club, something caught his eye.

Mondo ordered a drink, and sat back down. Few tables apart from him, there were couple of shady men mumbling something. Mondo had a feeling he had seen the men earlier, but he couldn’t remember where. So biker just sat still, listening to them talk with the glass in his hand. Mondo recognized few words now and then, but he was too far away to hear what they were talking about.

“So that’s decided then.” One of the men stood up to leave, others following his suit.

“Tell your boss that this is the last offer.” Black suited man said to the other two opposite him: “Our boss won’t waste her time with you unless it’s business we are talking about.”

After speaking those words, the men left from the club. Mondo leaned his chin to his hands, his brows furrowed. He had no means to figure what that all was about, but it definitely wasn’t anything good. Gang leader gritted his teeth angrily. Especially when those fucking bastards had a nerve to keep meetings in Crazy diamond’s territory. Biker shot up from the bar stool, leaving his drink on the counter untouched.

Mondo slammed the outdoor shut and walked straight to the couch in the living room, falling back first onto it. What the hell was going on? Mondo thought staring blankly at the ceiling. After a while he sat up, thinking back the men’s conversation, over and over again. Mondo rubbed his forehead with his fingers but then he groaned and stood up.

Is there really was something shitty going on in his territory, it wouldn’t be too tough for him and Crazy diamonds to handle. Nothing ever had. Biker kicked his shoes off, not bothering to look at the clock and walked up the stairs into his bedroom. He’d only get some sleep and give more thought to it. Right now Mondo was just too tired to decide how to act.

Mondo woke up to his phone ringing in the first floor. Biker swore heavily, before dragging himself up from bed to get the phone. Mondo grabbed the phone, and angrily answered the call.

“The hell..! Who the fuck’s idea was to call me ya idiot..? Gang leader sunk into the couch, groaning at his gang member’s joke. They often had nothing like good humour.

  “Sorry Oowada, we are just having little problems here.” There wasn’t a hint of laugh in the man’s voice, and Mondo grew quickly serious.

“What..? I’ll be there in a minute…!” Mondo stood swiftly up, all the sleepiness leaving his mind.

“Right, you know where to find us. Some people started making trouble at the club-” Gang member’s talk changed into static noises, leaving Mondo unaware of the end of his sentence.

Mondo stared shocked at his phone, which announced that the connection to the number was lost. Biker rushed into the hall barely shoving his shoes on before running to his bike. Mondo drove faster than in a long time, fully ignoring the other traffic and red lights. This was getting dangerous. Who the fuck dared to attack his gang like that!? Mondo let the engine roar even louder, accelerating the pace of his bike. Gang leader braked at the front of the club, his expression growing furious at the sight. Mondo jumped off from his motorbike, baring his teeth in angry grimace at the unfamiliar men standing fighting some of Crazy diamond’s members.

“THE FUCK YOU THINK YA’RE DOING YOU SHITHEADS!” Gang leader hit his fist hard to the face of man holding a knife, sending him flying to the asphalt.

The men stopped fighting, other gang’s men staring at Mondo. They all had knives in hand, while Crazy diamond’s member never used weapons, liking fights fair and square.

“Pathetic bastards! Using weapons against unarmed opponent!” Mondo spat at the men, despising look on his face. The men looked at each other, and then put their knives away, letting a man walk past them.

“Well well. The head seems to have appeared.” The man in suit talking seemed odd in comparison to the rest of the unknown men, who were wearing baggy clothes like any gangster would. Mondo stood protectively in front of his gang, looking down at the man in suit, who clearly had no interest of fair games.

“Mess with my gang again n’ you won’t make it back to mom, when I smash your pathetic skull with my own two hands!!” Mondo roared outraged.

“We simply came to inform you that we are going to take over this part of the city.” The man stated nonchalantly, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“THE HELL DID YA SAY?!!” Mondo was about to hit the suited man, when the men behind him pointed guns at Biker in a single motion.

“…! You lil shithead..!” Mondo gritted his teeth but put his fist back down. Gang leader’s shoulders trembled with rage, as he looked the group walk away, keeping their guns in hand.

 

“DAMN THIS!” Mondo almost flipped the table over as he stood up, shouting in frustration. The Crazy diamonds had gathered into the club to discuss about their situation. The man next to him put his hand to Mondo’s shoulder:

“Relax. Nothing really happened. Maybe they are just all talk.”

Biker tried to calm down, sitting back down. He never took it easily when somebody injured his gang member. It was especially hard for him to stay calm after the suited man from before gad so carelessly announced that they were coming for Crazy diamond’s territory. As if it was nothing. Mondo leading his chin to his fists, elbows resting on the table.

“We aren’t letting them get away with this..! I swear to you that they’ll never have our area..!” Gang leader murmured, earning supportive yells. Mondo stared angrily in front of him:

“They’ll be whining for mercy. Just wait you fuckers.”

Mondo had lost the track of the time by the fifth glass of alcohol, staying at the bar until the late night. He never barely even ordered a drink for himself, but Saturday’s events had been a reason good enough for drinking.

Biker woke up in terrible headache. Apparently somebody had taken him home yesterday, making an effort of driving his bike all the way back. Mondo picked up his phone from next to his motorbike’s keys on his nightstand. Mondo squinted his eyes at the bright light of his phone’s screen, trying to check what time it was. After a while Mondo gave up, turning around under his sheets and just went back to sleeping.

Spending his Sunday in hangover, the next time Mondo woke up without feeling sick was on the Monday morning. Gang leader yawned and stretched his limbs, before sitting up. He had about half an hour to get ready and onto his bike. Mondo put on his clothes, and walked down into kitchen to quickly grab something to eat.

Mondo tried his best not to think about the Saturday’s incident, but it still haunted gang leader somewhere in the back of his mind. Mondo shook his head to clear his thoughts, opening the out door.

Biker arrived at the parking lot, deep in thoughts. Mondo barely managed to notice the kids waving at him, but he nodded in response. Mondo stared blindly at his feet while walking down the road towards the café. Hearing Mrs. Kano’s high spirited greeting Mondo snapped back to reality. He nodded at Mrs. Kano who was sweeping the front of the cafe, and walked inside.

Biker’s face lit up slightly, when he saw hall monitor cleaning the windows, his back towards Mondo.

Mondo walked towards Ishimaru, who was standing on the ladders to reach the upper part of big window: “Yo..! Feeling better already?”

“Wha-!” Ishimaru was startled by Mondo’s sudden greeting, and he almost lost his balance, making the ladders wobble threateningly. Mondo rushed to support the ladders, before hall monitor would fall /again/.

“Uh…Sorry…” Gang leader looked away, biting his lip.

“I-I’m perfectly fine.” Ishimaru’s eyes were wide open and he gripped the ladders so tightly his knuckles had turned white. Mondo held the ladders still, until prefect had safely climbed down. Prefect rinsed the cloth in water bucket, before putting it neatly onto the border of it.

Ishimaru straightened up and rolled his sleeves down: “Good morning, Oowada! As you can see, I am back to work!”

“About the time you’d do that..! Made me wait long enough..!” Oowada grinned happily, and slammed his hand onto the prefect’s shoulder. It took him few seconds to realize what he had just done, and the both stared at Mondo’s hand, before he quickly pulled it back.

“I-I gotta change into my uniform..! Don’t break anything ya hear…!”

Mondo put his hands into his pockets and walked swiftly towards the locker room, leaving prefect with dumbfounded expression.

The day went by a lot faster, now that Mondo didn’t have to do all the work by himself. Mrs. Kano had left to do some shopping, leaving the café for Ishimaru and Mondo to look after. Biker was on his way to the locker room, when he heard commotion from the counter:

“Like the hell I’d pay for that tasteless crap!” Rough man’s voice yelled.

“I apologize if the taste didn’t please you. We don’t demand payment from unwell liked meal.” Mondo heard Ishimaru’s polite answer, and headed back towards the counter.

“That’s right, you should be apologizing! I’m leaving!” Just when the man turned to leave, he almost bumped into Mondo who had just arrived behind him. The man’s face turned pale, as he came to realization of with who he was standing face to face with.

“How come I just overheard how you complimented the food in here with your date…? Didn’t have very unpleased expression, gotta say.” Gang leader growled, making man back away till his back hit the wall.

“I-I d-don’t know what you are talking about…!” The sharp tone had disappeared from man’s tone, as he looked at Mondo with frightened expression.

“Haa..?” Mondo leaned even closer, slamming his hand against the wall next to the man’s face. Gang leader smirked at the pathetic sight in front of him.

“Maybe ya changed your mind then? Wanna walk over there and pay for your meal...?” Mondo pointed to the direction of the counter with his head, dangerous tone in his voice. Biker took few steps backwards, looking how the man hastily gave his payment to Ishimaru.

“I-I’ll make you pay…! I won’t forget this..!” Terrified man yelled threats as he ran out of the door, stumbling into his feet on his way.

Mondo burst into laugh, leaning his back onto the wall. Hall monitor seemed not to know how to react about what had just happened. He gave biker puzzled look, before shaking his head slightly: “That was very unthinkable of you…! We can’t scare our customers off like that…!”

Even though Ishimaru was obviously trying to keep serious face as he scolded Mondo, hall monitor couldn’t help his lips curling slightly upwards.

“The heck! That dude was trying to trick you!” Mondo smiled widely, before furrowing his brows: “Can’t stand the people acting though, but running like cowards when it comes to it.” Mondo’s voice has serious tone in it, and he crossed his arms, looking to the direction where the man had fan off to.

Gang leader had managed to keep it out of his mind until now, but the hassle from earlier reminded him of Crazy diamond’s current situation. Mondo stared out of the window, lost in thoughts, before prefect broke the silence: “Is something wrong? You seem little out of normal today…?”

“Huh..?” Mondo looked at Ishimaru, surprised. Was he that easy to read?

“I will listen if you need to get something off your mind.” Prefect looked like he was serious, and they looked each other in the eye quietly for a while. Mondo turned away first, closing his eyes biker shook his head.

“Nah…Nothing serious. Just something with my gang…” Even though Mondo said that, he did feel little uneasy. It wouldn’t be very wise to involve anyone into this. Right now Crazy diamonds had a problem that could turn out to be much more dangerous than empty threats: There were lots of different types of gangs, and the one from Saturday was the type Mondo least wanted to deal with: Elitists with guns, thinking they could order others around. There were plenty of details that made that kind of gangs hard to deal with, but one thing always remained the same: They never played fair.


	3. Piece without a puzzle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More customers meant more work, which had in few weeks time turned out to be more exhausting than the biker could ever have imagined.
> 
> As if the physical exhaustion wasn’t enough, Mondo had yet to hear again of the gang, that had some time ago rudely barged into Crazy Diamonds turf. It really rubbed him the wrong way. The fact that a certain collegue of his was absent, didn’t help the anxiety building up inside of him either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I feel really bad for taking such a long time to add a chapter. It has been over a year, I'm really sorry..! I lost inspiration because i accidentally deleted the third chapter i had been working on. On top of it all that happened twice... But the email notices of new kudos even if they were rare, were a huge boost. Few times, when my story got new kudos I was all like "I'm going to write a new chapter! " or "Wow people still read this omg i'm so sorry i haven't updated..!" So I just started writing the third chapter again few days ago(lol 3rd time). On the light side, I actually like it more that the previous versions. I still do plan on finishing the story, I'm not dead..! I suppose I will have to take back what I said about trying to update reqularly though, sorry for that. The next chapter will be from Ishimaru's Pov! Please enjoy!

Mondo’s Pov

Mondo wiped his hands to the black apron of his uniform, straightening his posture. Biker looked at the broom resting on his right, and flexed his back muscles with a groan. There was just an hour left of his shift but he felt like he had been working day and night for the past week. The cafe had been gaining popularity over the summer, which was surprising considering that both local school’s prefect and the worst delinguent in town were the ones who worked at the cafe in guestion. 

Mondo’s first impression of his employer being sweet old lady, had been proven false during the time he had worked in the café. She definitely was a kind person, but there was efficient businneswoman hiding under her sweet cover. Mondo recalled overhearing Mrs. Kano carefreely chatting over phone something about attracting certain type of customers and perfect choises in employment. He didn’t guite get what it was all about, and got into conclusion he’d rahter keep it that way. After all, everything was fine as it was, as long as he got paid and none of the Crazy Diamond’s members got to know that their leader was part timer in some café.  
More customers meant more work, which had in few weeks time turned out to be more exhausting than the biker could ever have imagined.

As if the physical exhaustion wasn’t enough, Mondo had yet to hear again of the gang, that had some time ago rudely barged into Crazy Diamonds turf. It really rubbed him the wrong way. The fact that a certain collegue of his was absent, didn’t help the anxiety building up inside of him either.  
The first time Ishimaru had been absent was when he was sick and barely a month later the prefect had apologetically asked to have few days of, apparently to take care of some important family businnes. Mrs. Kano had assured it was perfectly fine, but charastetically to the hall monitor, he wasn’t pleased with the situation until it was arranged that he’d compenstate for his absence by working in the weekend.

Mondo exhaled deeply and picked up the broom to walk back into the café. He opened the door, and almost walked into Mrs. Kano, who happily exclaimed:

“There you are, sweetheart! I was just looking for you!” The overly sweet tone in her voice made Mondo sigh, he knew what was coming next.

“The slender maiden I am, I couldn’t lift the packages that were just arrived. You surely could easily put them into the shelves, isn’t that right darling?” Mrs. Kano clasped her hands pleadingly together. 

An outsider propably would have fallen right into that act, but after working as her underling for the past summer, Mondo knew better than to complain when asked to do something. The sweeter the tone, the more troublesome request was to be excpected.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever...” Mondo groaned quielty but began to walk into the direction of backroom anyway. “Though I don’t see any slender ladies nearby...” 

“Could you please say that again..?” Gang leader stiffened visibly at the too innocent sounding remark and quickly escaped into the backroom.

\----------------------------------

 

‘How can a single café lady be scarier than the gangs Crazy Diamond has dealt with so far...?’ Mondo complained to himself while grabbing one of the boxes.

“Hngh!” The box was really, like /really/ heavy. What the hell middle aged café ladies needed weighted this much..? On the second thought, he preferred not knowing. By the time Mondo finished lifting the boxes, his arms felt sore and his forehead was drenched in sweat.

“’Ey, all done back there.” Mondo went behind the counter, rubbing his neck that ached uncomfortably. 

“Really? Good work, honey. You can go home little earlier today, it seems that most of the customers have already left for today.” Mrs. Kano’s voice could be hear from the kitchen, until she appeared at the door to motion towards the dressingrooms. 

“Ya sure..? I ain’t got too much to do anyways.” 

Despite his words, biker culdn’t help but feel a little releaved seeing his boss go back to kitchen and shooing him off absent mindedly.  
Mondo sat down onto the dressingroom’s bench, and let out an exhausted sigh. Allthough he wasn’t going to admit it, the various things going on in his life were taking their toll on his body. After some time, Mondo jumped at the sound of his phone buzzing next to him and realized he had dozed off.

Gang leader rubbed his eyes with both hands, before lazily picking up his phone, excpecting some of drunk Crazy diamond’s members sending him spam mail. 

‘Really, why can’t they bug someone else...’ 

His sleepiness was quickly forgotten and Mondo felt light excitement bubbling inside of him after reading the sender’s name. In the next moment his face was burning up at the realization of his reaction, glad there was nobody to see.

The two of them had kind of awkwardly changed numbers, when Mondo was looking after the sick hallmonitor nearly a month ago. The gangleader had surprised even himself, out of nowhere asking for Ishimarus number. Just as confused as the other party at his own actions, Mondo had ended up making excuses like being practical to inform eachother about abscence from work. 

Now he... wasn’t so sure if he really hadn’t had any other motives. Getting texts from the prefect made his mood noticeably brighter, and his gang kept sneering at him how much more he smiled nowdays compared to before. (Although Mondo stubbornly kept denying it.)

Biker looked back at the message on the screen. 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[subject: Hello!]  
[sender: Ishimaru Kiyotaka]

[Good evening Kyoudai! I am very sorry for the trouble I caused by leaving the cafe for you and Mrs. Kano to take care of today! Please forgive my rudeness! I wanted to make it up to you so I thought I would ask if you were free this evening? I could help you with your homework if you want to, I finished mine already, so worry not! It won’t interfiere with my studies!  
Remember to wear a helmet on you way home! It’s unacceptable to break the law by not following the safety instructions!]

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

‘The hell, it’s not like we couldn’t deal with some petty café with the two of us...’

Biker tried to hide how happy the offer had made him, but small smile escaped to his lips anyway. He zoned out for a while, thinking how stupid he probably seemed right now. Grinning alone at his phone, looking all idiotic and in l-... His face all the way up to the tips of his ears felt hot at the thought. There was no way he could feel anything more than brotherly affection towards the prefect. That was it. They were like brothers.

Barely a month ago they had practically been at each others throats, him cursing Ishimaru to the deepest bottom of hell, and the other constantly lecturing the biker about impolite behaviour and unacceptable use of language. Mondo had literally considered it the end of his holiday, the moment he realized who the person he was supposed to work with was. 

Suddenly his phone vibrated on the bench, snapping Mondo out of his thoughts. Grateful of the distraction, Mondo grabbed his phone.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Subject: Good!]  
[Sender: Ishimaru Kiyotaka]

[That is most delighting! I will be there at 16.00 sharp. I hope you have all of your books Kyoudai! I will bring mine so if you don’t have them, I can lend you the ones that you require to be able to study properly!]

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After reading the reply, Mondo stared at the messege for a while. Then the gangleader abruptly stood up to finish changing his clothes and exited the locker room. Biker stopped shortly to say goodbye at the outdoor and walked out of the café, unconcious of the wide smile plastered to his face. 

\----------------------------

Mondo arrived at the parking lot, his motorbike waiting where he had left it in the morning. The corner of gangleader’s mouth twitched slightly upwards at the memory of hallmonitor’s demand to wear a helmet. Mondo shook his head and seated himself onto the saddle of his trustworthy bike. It was unheard of for a gangster to wear a helmet, not to mention for a gangleader. Mondo started the engine, enjoying the familiar roaring for a while before driving off. Even though he had always enjoyed riding his bike, today the drive felt rather long.

It took an hour for him to reach his house. (If he had had a habit of driving according to the speed limits, it would have taken at least twice as long). Driving with an ease of someone with many years of experience, Mondo curved smoothly onto his driveway and pulled to a halt. Only after he got off of his bike, did Mondo notice the familiar figure standing on his doorsteps.

Ishimaru stared at him in horror, shaky finger pointed at the direction of gangleader’s bike:

“How is that way of driving legal, kyoudai..!? You might kill someone with that kind of drivingstyle..!!”

Although they were words of pure concern, Mondo felt a pang of quilt in his chest at hallmonitor’s remark. Painful memories of the incident that had lead to him becoming the leader on Crazy Diamonds, resurfaced into his memory. His grip tightened around the handle  
of his bake, and his face turned grim.

“K-kyoudai..? Ishimaru seemed to have noticed something was off and walked closer to Mondo who stood motionlessly on his driveway, glazed eyes staring into nothing. After regaining the control over his thoughts, the biker laughed nervously.

“T-the hell are you doin’ here already Ishi? It’s half an hour early, thought ya were the punctual type.” Mondo forced a laughter, trying to shake away the uneasiness.

“Oh, I m-merely arrived sooner than excpected so I thought that I could as well come to your place earlier” 

Prefect’s laughter was slightly too loud to sound relaxed, but Mondo decided it was fair not to bug him about it. He was glad Ishimaruhadn’t the habit of prying things and had dropped the subject from earlier. Mondo wasn’t exactly in the mood for talking about his brother, eventhough he knew it was necessary to face it at some point. He just... Didn’t know how to deal with it.

After the stiff beginning of conversation, Ishimaru managed to lift the mood with his over enthuastic studying spirit, and soon Mondo was able to relax again. Starting towards the carage, he threw the keys of his house to the surprised Ishimaru, who just barely caught them.

“What are these for, kyoudai?” Ishimaru had a questioning look on his face as he looked up from the keys on his palms.

“The door, dumbass..! Ya can go in already. I gotta put the bike into the carage fist.” Biker laughed at hallmonitor whose face flushed in embarrasment before he stomped towards the door steps in attempt to unlock the door.

“O-ofcourse I was aware of that..!!”

Gangleader pushed his bike into the carage with a little struggle (he definitely /didn’t/ regret not having driven it in) and gave a light pat to the saddle. Smiling at the nostalgic sight of his bike, Mondo walked out of the carage. 

Just as was about to close the carage’s doors, he realized he hadn’t heard the outdoor close at all. He fell silent and stood still, staring at the open door of his flat.

“Yo, Ishi!” He called out but there was no answer. 

Mondo started to panick slightly, several different scenarios coming to his mind. What if it was the intruding gang..? That would explain why they had been keeping a low profile. If you wanted to do a surprise attack, there was no better way than to let the enemy think that nothing was going to happend and strike when least excpected.

Mondo took deep breath and started slowly towards the door, speeding up to run he feared the worst. From the doorway he could make out a character standing in the dark room. His heartbeat quickened as he reached towards the lightswitch.  
There was no use trying to sneak up to the intruder. They knew all too well who they were against and that Crazy Diamond’s leader wouldn’t go down without a fight. Mondo glenched his jaw, and turned on the lights. His heart must have skipped a beat, and his eyes widened as he stared at the familiar back.

Ishimarus was standing in the middle of his cramped livingroom. God, was he glad he was allright.

“Fuck Ishi! The hell you didn’t answer me for!!!” Mondo rushed to the prefect and grabbed his shoulder. Ishimaru turned to look at him, fear in his eyes:

“K-kyoudai... Somebody must have broken into your house while you were gone..! Your belongings are lying all around the floor, the house is a mess!” Ishimaru’s eyes moved restlessly around the room as he spoke with shaky voice. Mondo looked around cautiously. Something was off. 

He...He didn’t see anything out of ordinary. Just his clothes messily lying on the furniture, some random magazines lying on the tables and empty cans littering the floor.

“Uh... bro.? I think ya’ve got somethin’ wrong here...” Mondo scratched the back of his head, too embarrassed to look directly at Ishimaru.

“What do you mean.?! I don’t think there is anything to misunderstand, you have to call the police right awa-!” The shaken prefect had found his phone and was about to dial to the emergency rumber, when Mondo hastily pulled the phone out of his grip.

“Holy shit man, whater ya doing..! Look, nobody has broken into anywhere, this is how my apartment normally looks.”  
Biker glanced into ishimaru’s puzzled face and exhaled deeply, making him sit down onto the couch. After moving a pile of dirty clothes out of the way he seated himself next to the hallmonitor, waiting for the information to sink in.

“Do you mean...” Ishimaru took a proper look around the room again, “That you left things like this before leaving for work this morning..?”

Mondo nodded, resting his face on his hands, his elbows leaning against his knees. 

“Ya scared the shit outta me just now..” Biker leaned back and slumped over the back of the couch, still covering his face with his palms. 

“...I really thought somethin’ was wrong.” Mondo lifted his hands and saw them shake slightly. He laughed hollowly at the patchetic sight, before letting his arms slide limply to his sides. 

‘And what if something had happened? What the fuck would I have been able to do then..? There I was, acting all tough but didn’t get a shit done. If there’d been a real threat, I propably would’ve just stood frozen on my feet.’ 

Mondo clenched his jaw and stared at the ceiling. 

‘Just like back then...What use I am if I can’t do a thing when I’m needed to..?’

“Sorry if this mess startled ya, just... Just never do that again, please..?” Mondo faced the ceiling, but glanced sideways at the prefect next to him who had falled quiet all of sudden.

“I am really sorry Kyoudai.. I didn’t by any means want to scare you.. I was just concerned that you weren’t safe with somebody having boken into your house! Or-or so I thought..” Ishimaru lowered his eyes, looking apologetically to his hands resting in his lap. 

“I can leave right away if you want me to!” The prefect was already standing up when he said that and turned towards the outdoor. 

Mondo panicked and grabbed the prefect’s arm before he could walk away. After realizing what he had done, biker quickly pulled his hand back and awkwardly tried not to look at Ishimaru. Mondo knew he had upsetted the other. He didn’t mean to do so, but somehow he always managed to choose the wrong words and ended up hurting the people around him. Ever since he was young. Mondo was too loud, too aggressive, too short tempered. He was too different and didn’t fit the puzzle.

“N-nah. I didn’t mean! It-it’s okay if ya stay..! If ya want to, I mean! FUCK!..” Mondo felt Ishimaru staring at him, wide eyed but didn’t dare to make an eye contact. Mondo bit his lip, frustrated at not being able to express himself. He had always had the habit of starting to  
shout when he was nervous. And that had never helped the situation.

“Thank you for having me over!” Ishimaru deadpanned having turned to face Mondo, almost standing in his trademark salute pose. He seemed to be completely serious as he stared at the dumbfounded Mondo. The two stared each other in the eye for several long seconds. Mondo was the first to burst into laughter and shortly after Ishimaru started grinning widely, before finally joining into the laughing. 

“Ya sure are a weirdo, ya know that?” Mondo breathed between his laughters, having fallen back onto the couch.

“I’m sorry but you really can’t afford to say that Kyoudai.” Ishimaru was also sitting on the couch, wiping away the tears that threatened to start overflowing from all the laughing. “You really startled me when you started southing. I thought that you required me to answer in the similar way.”

The two laughed until they were out of breath, leaving them leaning against the back of the couch, staring at the ceiling with smiles still lingerin on their lips.

“Thank you, it was quite refreshing..! I haven’t laughed this much in a long time!” Hallmonitor looked at the gangleader, and the smile reached all the way into Ishimaru’s scarlet eyes. Mondo turned his head to look at Ishimaru, suddenly remembering the original purpose of his visit.

“Hell yeah..! Weren’t we supposed to study or somethin’?”

“Kyoudai, language! But I cannot believe the day has really come when you would willingly start to study and on your own reguest that is....!!!”

Mondo was about to say something, but the answer was stuck into his throat, when Ishimaru jumped up from the couch. Mondo hadn’t thought it was possible for anyone to smile any wider, yet there Ishimaru was, looking like he had been promised the moon from the sky. It was like a fire had lit into the prefect’s eyes at the mention of studying and Mondo couldn’t help but avert his eyes.

“What are ya making a fuss about, it’s not like I came up with this in the first place.”

“It doesn’t matter! I am happy to know that even you have some interest in studying. Maybe you aren’t completely lost case after all!” 

Ishimaru didn’t seem to consider his comment offending, the way he smiled innocently at the biker.

“What the hell was that supposed to mean!” Mondo jumped up from the couch and chased after Ishimaru who had walked to the hallway to fetch his bag along with the books. 

“I’m sorry, but there will be no playing around before we get the fisrt ten pages done.” Ishimaru simply stated, deadset on reaching the goal already. 

“Wha- There’s no way we could get so much done! Ya do know that I don’t even know what we were supposed to do, right?” Mondo stared at the back of prefect in disbelief. Ishimaru ignored his complaints and started climbing up the stairs.

“Do not worry, we can’t change that! Maybe you will even grow fond of school work! You could do something to this mess as well...” Ishimaru continued rattling on and Mondo exhaled deeply.  
This was going to be a long night.


	4. Fixing the cracks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow Kiyotaka had ended up teaching Oowada late into the night, proud of his kyoudai who had miraculously managed to preserve at least a slight bit of interest into studying. Kiyotaka on the other hand, could have went on and on with his teaching unless the sudden drowsiness hadn’t caught him so off guard. Oowada had managed to convince him to stay over, making the hallmonitor admit there was no way he would stay awake the hour and half it took to walk back to his place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! And merry christmas! I wanted to write something for christmas and here it is. I'm actually not sure how this chapter turned out but I hope it isn't being repeatitive? Somehow this update ended up to be on the angsty side, I thought I'd write something cute for the winter holiday but.. Whoops, plot happened. I don't know if it's anything too triggering but I think I should warn you about kinda depressing(?) themes in this chapter. So if you get easily depressed then maybe you should read this tomorrow to save your christmas mood. Anyways, I love happy endings so... Also, notice that because of the change of pov in here, I intentionally used names Kiyotaka and Oowada instead of Mondo and Ishimaru like from Mondo's pov. I hope it doesn't get too confusing..! Here you go, please enjoy and have a nice winter holiday everybody~♥

Wings burnt with the fire  
Fixing the cracks

Kiyotaka’s pov

Kiyotaka woke up and rubbed his sleepy eyes. Stretching his back to fix his uncomfortable sitting position, the boy felt a blanket fall down from his shoulders. Kiyotaka had to stirr his scarlet eyes before they got used to the amount of light in the fully lit room. Had he been sleeping by the table? No wonder his neck felt so stiff. Kiyotaka looked around the room, trying to remember why he wasn't sleeping in his bed. Actually, even more than that, he wanted to recall why he wasn't in his own room to begin with. 

A suffling sound coming from nearby caught Kiyotaka's attention, startling him and causing his heart to start to race. Careful not to make too much noise, Kiyotaka leaned slightly over the table, only enough to see what had caused the sound: Oowada was sleeping on the floor on the other side of the table, all wrapped up into his blanket. Kiyotaka blinked his eyes at the sight for a few dumbfounded secods ,before sitting back down as quietly as he managed. Kiyotaka gave his best attempt to hold back a chuckle, surpressing his laughter into a wide smile.

Now that he looked around, the hallmonitor was pretty much certain he had woken up to their -not so planned ahead- study all nighter. Which had turned out to be -not so succesfull- all nighter, seeing they had both fallen asleep. Kiyotaka had had the meaning of giving his kyoudai some advice to help him with homework, which had proven out to be quite a workload indeed. 

At first he had been quite shocked to find out how little Oowada had previously studied if at all. Anyhow he had decided to resist the urge to start lecturing the other. Instead he tried to hide his disappointment and began enthuastically helping his mate pick up the things that had gone past his ears during lessons. (Which meant pretty much everything they had been taught in the past year.)

Somehow he had ended up teaching his brother late into the night, proud of his kyoudai who had miraculously managed to preserve at least a slight bit of interest into studying. Kiyotaka on the other hand, could have went on and on with his teaching unless the sudden drowsiness hadn’t caught him so off guard. Oowada had managed to convince him to stay over, making the hallmonitor admit there was no way he would stay awake the hour and half it took to walk back to his place. 

Kiyotaka obviously hadn’t originally planned to spend the night at Oowada’s so it took some convincing to get the prefect to agree to stay over. In truth Kiyotaka would gladly have accepted the offer, if it wasn’t for the weird uneasiness he felt at the thought of sleeping at Oowada’s place. 

Partly because he was somehow embarrassed to have his first sleepover at this age, but there was something else that he couldn’t quite put a finger onto. It should’t be too weird for guys their age to have a sleepover, but he couldn’t help feeling nervous while thinking about sleeping in the same room as the biker.

Kiyotaka snapped out of his thoughts, when he heard movement on the other side of the table. He carefully leaned over and to his surprise Kiyotaka saw Oowada curled into his blanket, sleeping peacefully on the floor. Why on earth hadn’t he gone into his bed..? Now that he thought about it, it was pretty obvious they had still been in the middle of studying when they fell asleep, both were sleeping by the table after all. 

Kiyotaka yawned and stood up as quietly as possible, careful not to wake up his kyoudai. The prefect straightened his clothes, frowning at the wrinkles that had formed because he slept in his normal clothing. He was wearing casual clothes, but even though it wasn’t his uniform, he still preferred to keep his outfit neat.

Looking around the room, Kiyotaka decided his brother wouldn’t probably mind if he did some cleaning. Hallmonitor started by setting the books on the table into neat piles, and then moved on to collecting the clothes from all over the floor and putting them into a pile in the corner. He would have liked to put them into a washing machine, but he came into a conclusion that it could seem rather rude, which he by any means didn’t want to be.

When Kiyotaka went over to the other side of the room to make the bed, he almost screamed when he felt somethin hit his ankle from behind. Looking over his shoulder, Kiyotaka saw Oowada had kicked him in his sleep, snoring biker’s limbs splayed across the floor. Hallmonitor did his best to hold back a quiet laugh as he looked at his drooling brother who hugged his blanket tightly. 

After neatly making the bed, Kiyotaka walked back to his side of the table, and picked up the blanket he had used last night. He carefully spread the blanket so that it covered his kyoudai’s bare feet properly. Kiyotaka shighed. If Oowada didn’t wake up soon, he would have to ask him to move into bed to sleep, otherwise he could catch a cold.

After tidying the room some more, he decided to sit down and read until his brother woke up. He didn’t want to pry too much into his stuff after all, even if it was just to clean up. 

After half an hour, Ishimaru checed his watch to see that it was still barely 8am. He usually woke up at this hour, but surprisingly he didn’t feel tired even though he had slept noticeably less than usually ( and on floor that is). 

Kiyotaka stood up from the bed that he had been sitting on, and stretched his limbs. As much as he thought it was a waste of time to sleep late into the morning, Kiyotaka decided to let Oowada sleep a little longer. He smiled at his brother who still snored happily on the floor. Be it reward for managing to finish a good deal of his homework last night.

Quietly laying his book onto the table in the middle of the room, Kiyotaka exited the room to go downstairs. Even though he didn’t like admitting it he may have gotten little addicted to his morning coffee, which he usually drank at this time anyway. But that’s to be excpected when one has to stay up to study for the sake of maintaining the grades like Kiyotaka has.

The coffeemaker was easily found from the kitchen’s corner, and Kiyotaka took a seat while he waited for his coffee. He looked around the kitchen and wondered if Oowada lived alone. The house was of average size, but unusually big for somebody to live alone in. Now that he thought about it, Kiyotaka knew barely anything about his kyoudai. But neither did Oowada about him.

Kiyotaka felt a pang of guilt in his chest. Should he tell him? There was a possibility the biker already knew, but somehow he was scared that his kyoudai’s additude towards him would change if he knew the shameful past of his family. 

The prefect bit his lower lip. He wanted to tell him. He really did. But how would Oowada take it..? If he saw the lavendel eyes of his brother fill with disgust, what would he do?

It was fine before. Facless people that stared down at him and gave him the cold shoulder. Kiyotaka had endured it for years, drowning himself into school work to silence the stinging in his heart. He kept quiet about the kids that bullied him, trying his best to focus on his grades instead. 

There were days when he would have arrived home late, face bruised or clothes muddy. But he never cried or complained. He just smiled at his parents, telling them he was sorry that he dirtied his uniform or lost his shoe. The looks on his parent’s faces made it hard everytime to hold it in. Not because they were angry, but because they looked so broken hearted to see their son try so hard not to let them down. 

His father would stare out of the window, his mouth a thin line. His mother would hug him tightly, crying her eyes out and whispering how sorry they were, until her eyes were red and puffy. Kiyotaka didn’t understand it then, but he later realized that he had probably just made his parents’ pain only greater by not letting his feeling show.

When he turned 17, Kiyotaka had decided to move closer to his school, to save the traffic expenses and hopefully lessening his parents’ burden as much as he could. The later he never told his parents, but only said it would be much more practical to live closer to his school, which was true at least.

Kiyotaka hadn’t realized he had been clenching his fists on his lap, until his palms started to hurt from his nails digging into his skin. Looking at his watch his eyebrows rose in surprisement, until they furrowed again. The prefect had been lost in thoughts for over twenty minutes, he really wasn’t being himself today. Kiyotaka shighed and stood up, rubbing the slightly sore skin of his palms with his thumbs. He really needed to get this off of his shoulders.

Hallmonitor poured some coffee into a mug he found from the shelf. His drink had already started to cool down, but he gave no mind to it and just sat back down to drink his needed dose of caffeine. While Kiyotaka was sipping his coffee, he heard a shower turn on in the upstairs. Surprised, Kiyotaka checked his watch again. It was only nearing 9am and Oowada was already up..? Honestly he had excpected to have to wait at least few hours longer. It was Sunday after all, the café was closed today.

He heard a shower get turned on in the upstairs. As the sound of running water went on and on, Kiyotaka started to feel strangely anxious and he unconciously began tapping his fingers against the wooden surface of the kitchentable. 

Kiyotaka would tell him. Oowada had a right to know. If he decided he wanted nothing to do with someone from the Ishimaru family after hearing Kiyotaka out, then he had a right to do so. 

Some time later the sound of running water died down and he heard a door open and then shortly after close. Kiyotaka gulped nervously.  
‘What’s wrong with me? It’s not like kyoudai really would resent me because of something like that...He- he wouldn’t do that-not him.’

Kiyotaka tried to calm himself down, his scarlet eyes darting around the room as the panick began to build up. The foot steps were steadily getting closer and the prefect was unable to sit still. 

 

-Stuupid! Look how ugly your sand castle was, you are lucky I smashed it before others could see it!-

 

The footsteps were getting closer. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the doorway. 

 

-Go away! We don’t want to play with you weirdo!-

 

The stairway creaked under the weight of the nearing footsteps. He didn’t do anything wrong.

 

-See that dork? He imagines hes like so much better that the others. I heard he’s the grandson of that Ishimaru. Figures.-

 

Kiyotaka stumbled few steps backwards. The memories flowed into his mind, starting a flashback.

“-eard he’s the grandson of that ishimaru. Figures.” The kids laughed as Kiyotaka walked past them. He didn’t look up, only stared at his shoes as he walked towards his classroom.

He tried he’s best to take notes during the lesson. When the teacher was facing the blackboard, somebody threw a crumbled ball of paper at the back of his head. Few kids snikered but he just kept to himself, continuing to write down the important parts of the lesson. The throwing continued, until he picked up one of the paperballs. 

“Teacher, Ishimaru is passing notes!” 

Kiyotaka immediately dropped the ball of paper he was holding, quietly apologizing to the teacher who shighhed and frowned at him:

“Ishimaru, I am very disappointed you would do something like that to interrupt the lesson.. I hope this won’t happen again..”

Kiyotaka just stared at his desk and bit his lip, wishing the teacher would just move on already. Why was it like this? Kiyotaka was constantly bullied but when the blame of something the other kids did was put on him, the teachers never doubted if he really was at fault. Few times Kiyotaka had even seen the teachers just look away when somebody tackled him or took his bag.  
No matter how many times he changed schools, the people always looked down to him and whispered behind his back. 

“Isn’t that’s the grandson of Toranosuke Ishimaru..?”

“Why is he even here? He’ll ruin our school’s reputation...”

“I hope we aren’t in the same class...”

After the lesson ended, Ishimaru slowly started packing his backbag. Some student purposely bumbed into him while rushing out of the classroom, almost making him fall over. Kiyotaka regained his balance and rubbed his arm that he had hit to the corner of his desk. He stood alone in the empty classroom, looking down at the crumbled pieces of paper surrounding his seat. 

Kiyotaka looked cautiously around, before picking up one of the paperballs. He slowly straightened the paper and looked at the scribbling on it with blank expression. He opened another ball of paper and read it, then second and third, until his desk was filled with the notes.

“Die”

“Nobody likes you”

“Go kill yourself”

“You are awful”

Ishimaru just stared at the notes with bland expression. This is what it had been like his whole childhood. What did he do wrong? He wasn’t any genius. He was just an average person, who worked really hard to get good grades. Genius. He hated that word. He hated his grandfather who had been a genius like no one else, only to become arrogant and fall into corruption destroying his family’s name and pride. The genius prime minister who in few month’s time destroyed the reputation of Ishimaru family.

There was no one who had accepted Kiyotaka as he was. What everybody saw in him was a grandchild of the resentful Toranosuke Ishimaru. They saw not his struggle to regain his family name’s honor, only the mistakes of his elder’s.

Somebody lunged at him shouting. Kiyotaka couldn’t make out the words, he just wanted to block them out. Kiyotaka lifted his trembling arms to cover his head and croughed down to the floor, hoping he could just disappear. He waited for the hit. A fist or a shoe to form new bruises in the places that had just healed.

Pitiful. He was pitiful. All he could do was shut his eyes and wait for it to be over. Kiyotaka whimpered on the floor, clenching his jaw.  
Everything was quiet for a while. Suddenly he felt someone embrace him, holding Kiyotaka tightly against themselves. He opened his eyes cautiously, blinking them to clear the blurry vision. He hadn’t realized he had started crying. All the held back emotions and piled up stress was suddenly too much, and Kiyotaka leaned into the warm hug, sobbing quietly until his tears dried out.

“Feeling better?” Kiyotaka blinked his eyes in confusion. What was going on? This.. This wasn’t his old classroom. He looked up to see the worried face of his kyoudai. At loss of words, the prefect glanced around Oowada’s kitchen that was littered with pieces of porceline.  
“Ya dropped your mug when I called out to ya..” Mondo had a protective hold of the hallmoonitor, who looked like he could start crying again in any moment.

“Hey-! It’s okay..! It’s just fine, I don’t mind at all..!” The biker hastily continued, when Kiyotaka’s eyes wided threateningly at the mention of him having dropped the mug.

The two just sat there silently for a while longer, until Oowada tightened his arms around Ishimaru and lifted him up.  
“Wha-K-kyoudai, what are you doing..?!” Kiyotaka resisted weakly, feeling ebarrassed over the whole situation already.  
Oowada didn’t answer but simply walked into the living room, putting Kiyotaka down onto the couch. 

“We-we can’t leave those porceline shards lying on the floor, kyoudai..! That’s dangerous..! I’ll just go to clean them, don’t mind-”  
The biker pushed Kiyotaka back on to the couch with an expression he was unable to read. Oowada sat next to him, and took off his beloved gang jacket he wore even inside the house. Kiyotaka’s eyes widened as the jacket was put around his shoulders, but instead of removing his arm Oowada left it laying protectively over Kiyotaka’s shoulders.

“Look, if ya don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine, really. Just... I don’t really know what just happened but... I’m here for ya, okay..?” Mondo was too ebarrassed to look at Kiyotaka, but he tightened his grip around his shoulders for a while to show that he really meant what he said.

Prefect hadn’t switched the lights on anywhere in the donwnstairs excpect for the kitchen, so the two of them sat in the silence, only the rays of sunlight lighting up the living room. After a while Kiyotaka nodded, feeling like if he talked now he would just start crying again. It wasn’t that he was too ashamed to cry, but he felt like crying had drained all of his energy. He was simply too tired to cry anymore.  
A weak smile spread across Kiotaka’s face and he let his tired body lean against the person next to him. Oowada Mondo. Was this the feeling of having somebody you knew you could really trust..? 

‘Someday’ Kiyotaka decided. ‘Someday I’ll tell him.’ His eyelids started to feel heavier by every passing second and he leaned into the comforting warmth. ‘I’m just not ready to do that yet.’

 

Mondo’s Pov

Mondo heard the calm breaths next to him become slower and he was surprised to find Ishimaru had fallen asleep.

“How long have you been holding all that in..?” the biker mumbled looking at the figure that had curled against him. “Are you stupid...Practically falling asleep into my lap...” Mondo had to look away from the too vulnerable looking face resting against him.

‘I did say I would be there for him, but...’ Mondo felt blood rushing to his face when he glanced back at Ishimaru’s face. Falling a sleep himself suddenly felt really tempting and Mondo laid down onto the couch, trying not to wake up the prefect. He used his arm as a pillow, and carefully wrapped his other arm around the person facing away from him.

The couch wasn’t big enough for him to fit in without putting his feet over the handrest, but he didn’t actually mind at all. This wasn’t an opportunity he got too often, after all. Mondo closed his eyes, exhaling deeply. Maybe he couldn’t erase the pain reflected from Ishimaru’s eyes, but at least Mondo wanted to help him recover from it the best he could.

 

‘Damn you.. I feel illegal just taking a nap on the same couch...'


End file.
